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IEEE International Superconductive Electronics Conference (ISEC)

Noise Contribution to Switching Current Distributions in NbN Nanowires

Qu Ashley, Di Zhu, Karl K. Berggren

Published Jul 1, 2019• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The working mechanism behind superconducting nanowire-based devices is the electrothermal transition from the superconducting to normal state, at which the point is known as the switching current. Due to the stochastic nature of nanowires from thermal fluctuations, quantum fluctuations, electrical noise, and black-body radiation, superconducting nanowire-based devices suffer from low repeatability in measurements. Here, we use a tapered and non-tapered NbN nanowire to identify and quantify the effects of ramp rate on the switching current distribution at 1 K. We also plan to expand the model presented by McCaughan et al that includes the noise of the measurement system.

DOI
10.1109/isec46533.2019.8990925

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The working mechanism behind superconducting nanowire-based devices is the electrothermal transition from the superconducting to normal state, at which the point is known as the switching current. Due to the stochastic nature of nanowires from thermal fluctuations, quantum fluctuations, electrical noise, and black-body radiation, superconducting nanowire-based devices suffer from low repeatability in measurements. Here, we use a tapered and non-tapered NbN nanowire to identify and quantify the effects of ramp rate on the switching current distribution at 1 K. We also plan to expand the model presented by McCaughan et al that includes the noise of the measurement system.
At low temperatures non-equilibrium voltage fluctuations can be generated in current-biased superconducting nanowires due to proliferation of quantum phase slips (QPS) or, equivalently, due to quantum tunneling of magnetic flux quanta across the wire. In this paper we review and further extend recent theoretical results related to this phenomenon. Employing the phase-charge duality arguments combined with Keldysh path integral technique we analyze such fluctuations within the two-point and four-point measurement schemes demonstrating that voltage noise detected in such nanowires in general depends on the particular measurement setup. In the low frequency limit we evaluate all cumulants of the voltage operator which turn out to obey Poisson statistics and exhibit a power law dependence on the external bias. We also specifically address a non-trivial frequency dependence of quantum shot noise power spectrum SΩ for both longer and shorter superconducting nanowires. In particular, we demonstrate that SΩ decreases with increasing frequency Ω and vanishes beyond a threshold value of Ω at T → 0. Furthermore, we predict that SΩ may depend non-monotonously on temperature due to quantum coherent nature of QPS noise. The results of our theoretical analysis can be directly tested in future experiments with superconducting nanowires.
An experimental study is presented of the output noise in hot-electron superconducting NbN bolometer mixers. Fluctuations of the electron temperature have been shown to be the main source of electrical noise. The rolloff frequency of the spectral noise density corresponds well to the inverse electron temperature relaxation time (≊230 ps). Equivalent noise data have been obtained for the device at a physical temperature within superconducting transition region, and at a somewhat lower physical temperature with the device pumped by 350 GHz radiation to reach the same operating point. The single sideband (SSB) mixer noise temperature due to intrinsic noise mechanisms for the NbN device is estimated to 360 K independent of radiation frequency. A larger critical current density may promote a further reduction of the intrinsic conversion loss of the mixer device.
Superconducting quantum circuits (SQCs) are being explored as model systems for scalable quantum computing architectures. Josephson junctions are extensively used in superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) and in persistent-current qubit systems. Noise excitations, however, have a critical influence on their dynamics. Thus, the primary focus of this research was to investigate the effects of thermal ac-tivation on the superconducting properties of Josephson junctions. Specifically, ther-mal noise tends to result in a range of switching currents, values less than the critical current at which a junction switches from the superconducting to the normal state. First, a general review of superconductivity concepts is given, including a treatment of the Josephson phenomena. Next, I describe some of my work on characterizing the current-voltage traces of Josephson junctions tested at 4 K with a Multi-Chip Probe (MCP). Then, I describe thermal activation theory and examine the equations useful for modeling switching current distributions. The Josephson junctions of a SQUID with a ramped bias current were tested for numerous temperatures T < 4.5 K (and
We investigate the timing jitter in parallel superconducting NbN-nanowire single photon detectors based on a cascade switch mechanism. The measured timing jitter is asymmetric and has an oscillatory dependence on bias current. At the highest bias current the full width at half maximum was 1.5 times larger than an on-chip reference meander NbN nanowire. A physical model of the dynamics occurring during cascade switch is developed, that quantitatively accounts for our observations as a consequence of different nanowire critical currents within the detector.
Macroscopic quantum tunneling is a process by which a macroscopic object, rather than a single electron, tunnels between two macroscopically distinct quantum states. In this dissertation, we will present the study of macroscopic quantum tunneling of phase-slips in superconducting devices, including one-dimensional nanowires, quasi-two-dimensional superconducting strips and doubly connected superconducting devices composed of two nanowires connected in parallel. We observe macroscopic quantum tunneling in these devices by measuring switching current distributions. It is known that the standard deviation of switching current distributions can be measured on a single nanowire to reveal temperatures at which macroscopic quantum tunneling is responsible for phase-slips. Therefore we begin by studying higher moments of the switching current distributions, namely the skewness S (a measure of the asymmetry of a distribution) and kurtosis K (a measure of its peakedness). We find that the skewness and kurtosis of the switching current distributions obtained via the Kurkijarvi process on devices composed of single nanowires do not depend on whether the switching events are initiated by quantum or thermal phase-slips. Skewness and kurtosis deviate considerably from the values associated with a Gaussian distribution (S=0 and K=3). If, in an experiment these higher moments approach Gaussian values they indicate the existence of noise. Next we study macroscopic quantum tunneling of phase-slips in quasi-two-dimensional superconducting strips, which are commercially available devices used as single-photon detectors. These devices are composed of (250 um) long, (120 nm) wide, meandering superconducting strips. Each time a photon with sufficient energy strikes the strip a voltage pulse is produced and counted. However, the accuracy of these detectors is limited by a rate of dark counts (false events). We find that at sufficiently low temperatures, the macroscopic quantum tunneling of a vortex through an edge barrier on the wire (which results in a phase-slip as the vortex crosses the wide wire) contributes a base-level dark count rate in these detectors which must be considered during operation at low enough temperatures. After studying tunneling in single one-dimensional nanowires and wide, quasi-two-dimensional strips, we move our focus to doubly connected superconducting samples composed of two nanowires connected in parallel. We characterize and model these devices, and show their applicability as nanometer-scale superconducting memory cells. We develop precise algorithms allowing us to write and read the information onto such memory cells. We also observe signatures of macroscopic quantum tunneling in these doubly connected devices by observing a saturation in the standard deviation of switching current distributions at low temperatures. We then discuss how macroscopic quantum tunneling of the memory state can lead to a dissipationless operation of the superconducting memory cell. In each of these devices, whether single one-dimensional nanowires, wide quasi-two-dimensional superconducting strips, or two nanowires in parallel, we find, quite surprisingly, that the same equations can be used to model macroscopic quantum tunneling at the high currents we apply. Therefore we argue that the physics of macroscopic quantum tunneling in wide quasi-two-dimensional strips and doubly connected nanowire devices can be well understood in the context of tunneling in a single, one-dimensional nanowire.
An advantage of superconducting detectors is a much lower noise in comparison to their semiconductor counterparts. We have studied the magnitude and spectrum of electric noise in thin superconducting NbN nanostrips carrying a subcritical current. Analysis of the experimental data suggests that the noise appears due to fluctuations in the two-dimensional vortex gas below the Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition. Implementing this approach to the noise mechanism, we proposed a novel detector. The novelty is the use of the noise, which generally hampers the performance of conventional detectors, as the physical quantity that itself senses radiation. Our detector patterned from a thin NbN superconducting film and integrated in a planar log-periodic antenna. The detector operates at 4.2 K in the current-carrying superconducting state. Optically measured noise-equivalent power amounted at 10-14 W Hz-1 and is likely to improve at lower temperatures.